Why Mining Pumps Can’t be Used to Suck Sand?

Mining pumps are the widely used powerful sand, trash and water handling pumps for efficient dewatering and residue handling in mining industries. Mining pumps are often used to handle particle concentration less than 30% and they are not suitable for sand sucking and dredging. Some many users may select mine pump to suck sand, especially he user who just comes to sand pumping industry. As a professional sand pump machinemanufacturer, we would like  explaining this problem for selection and application of mining pump correctly.

Here are Several Reasons Why Do Mining Pumps Can’t Suck Sand

1.The air in the mining pumps case caused mining pumps can’t suck sand.

In August 2018, Our customer from Malaysia wanted to purchase our sand extraction pump. At first, he considered to put the sand extraction pump on the sand shore, it is about 20 meters away from the surface of the water, then put the rubber hose into water to pump sand. Our engineer didn’t agree with this scheme. We recommended using a jet suction dredger, putting the sand extraction pump in the jet suction dredger for pumping. Because of the air in the centrifugal sand pump case may cause the mining pumps can not suck sand.

The design principle of the mining pumps is when pump is filled with liquid, the centrifugal force is formed by the high speed rotation of the impeller, so that the water is continuously sucked from the sand suction pipe. Almost everyone knows this principle, but when choosing the mining pumps, people often ignore the vacuum suction of the mining pumps. Then vacuum suction of the normal sand pump is about 6 meters, that means when the pump is 6 meters higher than water surface, the mining pump can not suck out the water, and the proportion of the sand is larger. So if the height exceeds 2-3 metiers, the effect of the sand pumping will be greatly reduced. Therefore, in the usual selection, the engineer always advise the user to put the mining pumps in the dredger or on the welding platform, so that the vertical height from water surface to centrifugal inlet is smaller. Moreover, if there is air in the sand pumping machine during work, cavitation will occur and the wear of the pump will increase.

2. Sand quality will affect sand pumping

The mining pumps are based on the foundation of the water pump. The difference between the mining pumps and water pumps is that the mining pump impeller has a wider flow path and better passability. The overflow parts are usually made of wear-resistant materials to ensure the life of sand pumping. But the basic principle is to suck the water and sand out by centrifugal force.

Since some construction sites are perennial sediments, some will have a knot. Therefore, it is necessary to impact the sediment by means of injection. How to achieve injection? It requires a set of high-pressure water gun. Using high-pressure water to disperse the sediment at the bottom of the river, increasing the concentration of the suction, and ensuring the amount of sand. If the sand is knotted for many years and the high-pressure water can’t disperse the sediment, you can use the types of cutter suction or bucket wheel. Using a reamer or bucket wheel to stir the sediment into the water to achieve high concentration.

3. The sand pump can’t suck sand because mining pumps loss or quality problem

After the long-term continuous operation of the mining pump impeller, there will be wear, or the gap between impeller and the front plate of the sand pump will be too large, resulting in a decrease in suction force, which will affect the amount of sand discharged; the mining pumps bearing is damaged, the mining pumps vibration is too large, causing the impeller to be eccentric, which also cause the suction to be affected. At this time, it is necessary to replace the overflow components or bearings.

4. The mining pumps can’t suck sand due to mismatched equipment

There exist power matching, pipeline matching, valve matching issues. The power matching is reflected in the diesel engine or the motor is too small, the power is insufficient, resulting in a problem with the load of the sand pumping machine, which causes the equipment to stop or malfunction; the pipeline is reflected in the leakage of the suction pipe, and the wear of the gasket causes the sand pipe to leak. It will affect the suction of the pumping equipment; the valve is mainly reflected in the excessive density of the bottom valve, the sand can not enter the sand pumping tube, thus affecting the efficiency of sanding.

Usually through these four aspects of investigation, it is basically possible to determine the reasons and solutions why the mining pumps can’t suck sand. This is also the knowledge that every mining pump industry practitioner needs to learn and master.